In July 2013, new fees were introduced to pursue disputes against employers in the tribunal courts to defer employees from lodging unfounded claims. Type A claims for sexual harassment, unfair dismissal and discrimination cost claimants £1,200. Type B claims to recover unpaid wages or holiday pay cost the employees £390. This has had a major impact on the number of claims processed by the tribunal courts. Continue reading
Tag Archives: UK government
Brexit – we’re in it for the long haul
Last week I attended London HR Connection meeting, where the topic was Brexit. The panellists were an employment lawyer, a high-end recruiter / head-hunter and a People Management magazine editor. All three gave their impressions of Brexit so far and predictions for the future. Continue reading
Right to return within one year of absence?
The Resolution Foundation published a report titled Retention Deficit in June 2016 to discuss the challenge of increasing employment level among disabled people. This article provides a summary of the report and recommendations. All the recommendations put forward here are those of the report authors.
Despite the employment rate sitting at a record high, the government has positioned halving the disability employment gap as a central challenge for the UK labour market. Progress in employment rates among the disabled has been modest at best, but large geographic variations in disability employment rates give reason to hope that improvements are possible. Continue reading
MPs call for substantial reduction in tribunal fees
In June 2016 House of Commons Justice Committee of MPs released a report on Courts and tribunals fees. The report repeatedly chastised the Justice Ministry for not assessing the impact of the introduction of fees quickly enough. It was also highly critical of the Ministry for not making their data on the subject available to review. Continue reading
Brexit – how will it affect employment law?
The big day of Brexit referendum is tomorrow 23rd June 2016. One of the popular arguments for voting to leave the EU has been excessive bureaucracy and regulation imposed on the UK by the common market. What is unclear is how things would change, should a Brexit take place. This uncertainty affects the HR field as well as other walks of life and business. There have been several high profile employment tribunal cases in recent years that have escalated to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Will those court rulings on holiday pay, overtime etc. simply be overturned with a return to status quo before them? Continue reading
Do you understand the Fit Note?
Fit Note – 5 years on
The Fit Note was introduced in 2010 and it has been in use for a little over 5 years. IOSH, the Chartered body for health and safety professionals recently conducted a study into the Fit Note titled‘Getting the best from the fit note’, which found that there is still widespread misunderstanding about the notes. Continue reading
EAT ruling on holiday pay: commission to be included
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that employers must pay commission as part of holiday pay. Continue reading
Autumn Statement and the Spending Review spell further commitment to reduce long-term absence
Tougher checks for disability benefits?
The Daily Mail wrote today, 25 November 2015, that George Osborne was expected to introduce new rules in awarding benefits to the long-term sick in his Autumn Statement. Today’s Spending Review does outline a vague plan of reforms Continue reading
National Living Wage is not the same as The Living Wage
To generate sufficient confusion among the public, the UK government have decided to roll out what they call National Living Wage. The source of the confusion is that this is different from The Living Wage, which has been put forward by the Living Wage foundation. Many employees, especially in the London area are now expecting their wages to rise above £9 (the figure put forward by the campaigners) in the spring and will instead receive just a 50p increase – the same as the rest of the country. Continue reading
Fit for Work now open
We’ve written about this before, but now it’s finally here. Employers in England and Wales are now able to refer employees to Fit for Work, the government service set up to help working people on long-term sickness absence.
Fit for Work provides occupational health services to people who have been, or are likely to be, off work for four weeks or more. It is particularly aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that have little or no occupational health support. Continue reading